Axelrod is almost certainly signalling to fellow Democrats and his allies in the media (like Politico) that this indictment is a political loser for the left.

This is the key. Axelrod is frantically calling an audible that this who mess should go away as quickly as possible. Outside of Austin and the LSM, it doesn't play well. The more the Lehmberg videos are played, the more pressure there is going to be on her to resign. Even worse, this could lead to a change in the Texas Constitution to move the Public Integrity Unit to the Attorney General. Which would not be good for Democrats, not one bit.

This was an unforced error by the people in the Travis County liberal bubble.

Personally, I hope it goes forward because there is no reason to stop the Democrats while they self destruct.

Here's the drunk State's Attorney whom Perry wanted the public corruption office to get rid of, on the night of her DWI arrest - .23 blood alcohol content, surly, and threatening the arresting officers. Yeah, I hope the Dems make a national issue of it. This would make a great campaign ad. "Rick Perry wanted this District Attorney fired after her drunk driving arrest. She refused to serve her sentence. She refused to step down. When the Democrat in charge of public integrity in Texas refused to take action, Governor Perry threatened to veto his funding. So did the Democrats do the right thing? No. They indicted Rick Perry for standing up against corruption. Rick Perry for America: strong, sober leadership."

Or something like that. I don't even like Perry that much but a little nimble marketing work could turn this to his advantage.

The media are giving us all sorts of opinions from partisan talking heads who have no clue about the facts or the law. What the news coverage of this affair truly needs is an opinion by a legal scholar who knows all about phony, politically based indictments.

It would be nice if some of Lehmnerg's so-called political friends sought an intervention. What I am reading certainly suggests she wasn't the victim of a night out with girlfriends at which no one realized those fruity cocktails with the fruit slices and the umbrella each contained 4 ounces of rum, including a healthy glug of Bacardi 151.

Lehmberg's credit card records show the regular purchase of about 1.33 liters of vodka a week. That works out to over four shots a day, every day. They also show a pattern of rotating the purchases among stores so none of the clerks would see her more than once every six weeks to two months.

This was the strategy all along. Smear Perry and if it didn't stick then you could abandon it. If there weren't such an outcry over how overtly partisan this was and how ridiculous it is then the dems would be flogging this story about how the evil GOP governor was befouling our democracy.

Perry's indictment will come in handy when/if Reoubs try to prosecute anyone wrt the IRS scandal. Dems will claim that Repubs criminalizing {something}. (Not sure what terminology is being poll-tested as we speak.)

Such prosecutions will also bring the full weight of the civil service and probably the postal service as well. You'll have wildcat activity like non-delivery of mail, slow-walking activities, arbitrary denial, etc. for anything done by Repubs.

I'm not saying that the war shouldn't be fought, but it will be a war, and a much larger one than most people think.

Like most big wars, it became inevitable because one side was feckless. In this case, Repubs helped build an adminstrative state that would try to kill them, and is now finding that said adminstrative state is trying to kill them.

Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason, Perry indictment seems pretty sketchy.

"Unless he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit ..."

This is what the left is saying. That the DA's office was investigating him and he tried to pull a Nixon/Obama. Axelrod is leaving himself some wiggle room while signaling the troops to use that angle. Count on it.

Axelrod is almost certainly signalling to fellow Democrats and his allies in the media (like Politico) that this indictment is a political loser for the left.

This is the key. Axelrod is frantically calling an audible that this who mess should go away as quickly as possible. Outside of Austin and the LSM, it doesn't play well. The more the Lehmberg videos are played, the more pressure there is going to be on her to resign. Even worse, this could lead to a change in the Texas Constitution to move the Public Integrity Unit to the Attorney General. Which would not be good for Democrats, not one bit.

This was an unforced error by the people in the Travis County liberal bubble.

Personally, I hope it goes forward because there is no reason to stop the Democrats while they self destruct.

Here's the drunk State's Attorney whom Perry wanted the public corruption office to get rid of, on the night of her DWI arrest - .23 blood alcohol content, surly, and threatening the arresting officers. Yeah, I hope the Dems make a national issue of it. This would make a great campaign ad. "Rick Perry wanted this District Attorney fired after her drunk driving arrest. She refused to serve her sentence. She refused to step down. When the Democrat in charge of public integrity in Texas refused to take action, Governor Perry threatened to veto his funding. So did the Democrats do the right thing? No. They indicted Rick Perry for standing up against corruption. Rick Perry for America: strong, sober leadership."

Or something like that. I don't even like Perry that much but a little nimble marketing work could turn this to his advantage.

You make this claim based on Perry's actions against the drunk? This action is so helpful to Perry that you have to wonder if Team Perry wasn't maneuvering for it.

Crime in the US is now defined as someone making a incandescent light bulb, using third-world non-union wood to make a guitar, buying a toilet that flushes, a shower head that works, soap that cleans, and a gas can that doesn't spill.

Axelrod may be worried that one day Speaker Boehner may wake up and notice that many Democrats really are criminals worthy of prosecution for crimes such as rape, extortion, fraud, embezzlement, theft, conspiracy etc.

In fact, the entire Chicago-style Democratic party appears to be modeled as criminal enterprise. Axelrod surely does not want Rick Perry to become President and hire an Attorney General who might indict some of these scoundrels.

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